VALENCIA - Spain will deploy 10,000 more troops and police officers to the eastern Valencia region devastated by historic floods that have killed 211 people, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said on Nov 2.

       Hopes of finding survivors more than three days after torrents of mud-filled water submerged towns and wrecked infrastructure were slim in the European country’s deadliest such disaster in decades.

       Almost all of the deaths have been recorded in the eastern Valencia region where thousands of soldiers, police officers and civil guards were frantically clearing debris and mud in the search for bodies.

       Mr Sanchez said in a televised address that the disaster was the second-deadliest flood in Europe this century and announced a huge increase in the security forces for relief works.

       The government had accepted the Valencia region leader’s request for 5,000 more troops and informed him of a further deployment of 5,000 police officers and civil guards, Mr Sanchez said.

       That will take the total number of troops and police in the affected areas to about 17,000.

       Spain was carrying out its largest deployment of army and security force personnel in peacetime, he added.

       “The government is going to mobilise all the resources necessary as long as they are needed,” he said.

       Restoring order and distributing aid to destroyed towns and villages – some of which have been cut off from food, water and power for days – is a priority.

       The authorities have come under fire over the adequacy of warning systems before the floods, and some stricken residents have complained the response to the disaster is too slow.

       “I am aware the response is not enough, there are problems and severe shortages... towns buried by mud, desperate people searching for their relatives,” Mr Sanchez said.

       Ms Susana Camarero, deputy head of the Valencia region, told journalists on Nov 2 that essential supplies had been delivered “from day one” to all accessible settlements. But it was “logical” that affected residents were asking for more, she added.

       The authorities in Valencia have restricted access to roads for two days to allow emergency services to carry out search, rescue and logistics operations more effectively.

       Officials have said that dozens of people remain unaccounted for, but establishing a precise figure is difficult with telephone and transport networks severely damaged.

       Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska on Nov 1 told Cadena Ser radio station that it was “reasonable” to believe more fatalities would emerge.

       It is also hoped that the estimated number of missing people will fall once telephone and internet services are running again.

       More than 90 per cent of the households in Valencia had regained power on Nov 1, utility services provider Iberdrola said, though thousands still lacked electricity in cut-off areas that rescuers struggled to reach.

       The tragedy is already Europe’s worst flood-related disaster since 1967, when at least 500 people died in Portugal.

       The torrential rains of Oct 29 destroyed houses, roads and bridges, killed more than 200 people and left hundreds more unaccounted for. Parts of Valencia received a year’s worth of rain in a few hours.

       Some of the most affected areas, such as the town of Paiporta, received little or no rain but were severely impacted by mudslides and water rushing downstream from areas hit by storms.

       In some of the worst-hit areas, people have resorted to looting because they have no food or water. Police said on Nov 1 they had arrested 27 people for robbing shops and offices in the Valencia area.

       Thousands of ordinary citizens pushing shopping trolleys and carrying cleaning equipment took to the streets on Nov 1 to help with the effort to clean up.

       Valencia’s City of Arts and Sciences, which normally plays host to opera performances, was on Nov 2 transformed into the nerve centre for the clean-up operation.

       A day earlier, the mass spontaneous arrival of volunteers complicated access for professional emergency workers to some areas, prompting the authorities to devise a plan on how and where to deploy them.

       Ms Camarero said some municipalities were “overwhelmed by the amount of solidarity and food” they had received.

       The surge of solidarity continued on Nov 2 as around 1,000 people set off from the Mediterranean coastal city of Valencia towards nearby towns laid waste by the floods, an AFP journalist saw.

       The authorities have urged them to stay at home to avoid congestion on the roads that would hamper the work of emergency services.

       The storm that sparked the floods on Oct 29 formed as cold air moved over the warm waters of the Mediterranean, and is common for this time of year.

       But scientists warn that climate change driven by human activity is increasing the ferocity, length and frequency of such extreme weather events. AFP, REUTERS